Annie Slabotsky

Branded Hospitality Ventures had a BLAST at the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago. We had 16 portfolio companies attending and we got to speak to each and everyone of them! + A few special Branded friends. Come along the journey with us! #NRA It was great seeing all of our friends, until next year! :) Hospitality Hangout Podcast Sterling Douglass Nicholas Glaser, MBA Chowly PepsiCo TouchBistro Adam Ochstein Brandon Barton Bite Fishbowl Anna Sarvello Ecolab QSR Automations Julie Rudder Angela Leet Ashley Sheppard Samir Zabaneh Brizo FoodMetrics #hospitality #marketing #digitalmarketing #technology #startups

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National Restaurant Association Show Insider 2024 highlights the importance of data in multiple articles. Joanna Fantozzi's covers the ways that data is becoming the real currency. Let's take a look! - Toast's new benchmarking tool uses AI and machine learning to aggregate menu data, allowing restaurants to compare their performance and pricing against similar competitors. - Powerhouse Dynamics' IoT network provides operators with valuable insights on energy usage and maintenance needs, enabling them to proactively address potential issues. - RoboChef's data-driven robotics solutions optimize back-of-house operations, as seen in @Caesar's Palace's cookie shot vending machine, which uses sales data to accurately predict restocking needs. Beyond marketing applications - these examples demonstrate how data-driven technologies are revolutionizing the restaurant industry, empowering operators with actionable insights to enhance efficiency, profitability, and customer experience. Check out page 26-28 of the e-pub. (link in comments)

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Here's one of the ways brand teams fail. It happens more often than not. Invest too much budget in one idea. Believe it's sure to succeed from surrounding yourself with like-minded people or a culture that punishes diversity. Run the single big production cost creative that has about the same chances of success as each of several smaller production creatives. Why? Because it's less work. Because leadership doesn't understand statistics. Because it's more likely to win some award on production quality. Because brand isn't measured by results. None of these are good reasons to blow the budget on one creative. Next time you see the brand team do this, gold spray paint a bunch of eggs and leave a basket on their desk on Bring Your Kids to Work Day. #brandmarketing #tv #marketing #performancemarketing

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A lot of the talk in the "Boosting Your off-Premise Economics" panel arlt #fodc2024 was about growing revenue - making sure you online store is open with tools like LoopAI Voosh and GrubConcierge or driving sales with new channels like Devour. Curious if your #restaurant is more focused on driving off-premise sales or if you are now more focused on making what off-premise sales you do have more profitable? Michael Montagano ended the panel with a prediction: the next few years will see the entire ecosystem more focused on reducing the unit costs of delivery. He believes the marketplaces will continue to be an important part of the business, but that restaurants will increasingly find ways to cost optimize fulfillment with products like Empower Delivery. Why? Guests value the convenience of delivery, but there's a ceiling on what they are willing to pay. Winning restaurants will find ways to give customers what they want at a value that makes sense.

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We took a supplement brand’s CVR from 1.25% to 3.10%. Also boosting AOV from £31 to £48. We used this exact strategy to get them these results: → Stopped pushing single SKUs only as ads. → Created a “Welcome Kit” bundle SKU to boost AOV and NC-ROAS. → Treated this as a new customer only offer. → Moved away from standard product pages. → Helped them build out a high-converting landing page to drive traffic to instead. Great seeing just how big of a difference one pivot can make.

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💰The Siete Foods foods news is a clear lesson that if your goal is to be acquired, build a business to be bought not sold. The businesses that get the highest valuation are ones that have buyers seeking to purchase them NOT the ones that founders look to sell. #cpg #foodandbeverage

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🚀 To build on the momentum from our Catering Dispatch product release, here’s Alex Vasilkin's article featured in Fast Casual, diving into key strategies for catering delivery success. Every day, we talk to catering operators about what works—and what doesn’t. This piece captures the approaches we discuss and how Cartwheel helps restaurants thrive with deliveries during the busiest time of year. 💡 Link to the article is in the comments! Reach out if you’re a catering operator—we’d love to help you elevate your delivery game this holiday season! 🎉

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Is your #restaurant changing as quickly as your guests are? Brands trialing innovative concepts are proving how to win.  Consumers report they prefer ordering and fulfillment processes designed for a digital journey.   Meanwhile, consumers are starting to show signs of #inflationfatigue. Transactions have been down across the #restaurantindustry for more than a year. Starbucks' troubles may be telling. This digital innovator may have innovated beyond where consumers are comfortable going. By omitting price from their item detail pages, consumers may be abandoning their carts at the end...when they find out just how expensive their choices are. Only by providing value for the price can restaurants keep consumers coming back for more. Watch the full episode on YouTube. Link in the comments down below.

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I posted yesterday about how your audience demographic can change "seemingly overnight" without you knowing it. This 100% happened to me and O2 Hydration. After the pandemic, we had a sizable DTC business on our hands, so we started to "talk with them" more. This came in the form of 1:1 conversations, almost always done by me, as well as customer surveys. We learned a lot from these exercises, notably how much people love our product, but there were (and continue to be) surprises - even after 100s of conversations and countless surveys. Case in point: in yesterday's post I shared how we had made O2 for "people like us" when we made it. Late 20s/early 30s, predominantly male, finance/healthcare backgrounds, etc. Our most recent survey revealed that the real "super fans" of O2, which comprise a little over half of O2 drinkers, are 60% women - and most of them are between the ages of 35-55. And the most frequent profession? Not trainers, not startup founders, not marketing executives. But teachers. Often high school. Implications everywhere, including who we work with as influencers, audience targeting, etc. Our most loyal customer base is basically your 9th grade English teacher, and I had no idea. This wasn't always the case, but it is now - hence the importance of constantly talking with your customers. Do you know your audience as well as you think you do? How about your superfans? Bet you $1 you don't.

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To break free and see your restaurant truly thrive, you have to grasp what makes or breaks a restaurant's success. It's not just about cooking up a storm—it's understanding the game behind the scenes. Escape the repetitive cycle, and understand what truly fuels a restaurant's success. Dive into the nitty-gritty details that truly drive success. It's time to level up! Join me 👉 https://lnkd.in/e93ysMY and together we will set your restaurant on a course for genuine success! #RestaurantManagement #BusinessGuru #SuccessMindset

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In this latest vLoyalty Lab interview, Peter Vogel and I chat trade notes about restaurant loyalty, discuss my experiences managing marketing for top brands like TGI Fridays and Yum! Brands/Pizza Hut. Don't miss the conversation if you are curious about the path from a corporate attorney in Russia to founding a boutique loyalty consultancy in Texas. 📈 #Marketing #BrandManagement #CustomerLoyalty

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Colin McCabe, the founder of Chopt Creative Salad Company announced the launch of a new rewards program, 𝗖𝗵𝗼𝗽𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀, to give their loyal customers a personalized experience. 🎉 The program has three tiers: Member, VIP, and Elite, each with better perks than the last. 🎁 New customers get a 500-point welcome gift when they sign up and place their first order. 🥗 Here's what makes Chopt Rewards special: ● You can choose how you want to use your points. 🏆 ● Get even more perks as you reach higher status levels. ✨ ● Exclusive events for members. 🎟️ ● Fun challenges with rewards. 🏅 ● Faster pickup for Elite members. 🏃 ● Take home free salad dressing. 🤤 You can find all the details and track your points in the 𝗖𝗵𝗼𝗽𝘁 app. 📱 It even works in stores, so you can scan the app to get your rewards and earn points when you order. 💳 (link in comments)

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🍸📊 Feeling the squeeze of rising cocktail prices? Our F&B Insights platform has the data and strategies to help bars and restaurants beat boozeflation! From menu optimization to brand partnerships, we’ve got the tools to keep your profits flowing without turning customers away. Let’s chat about how to make your beverage program work smarter, not harder. 💡 https://lnkd.in/gUt8-JU5

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Dear #cannabisindustry Branding is everything! Branding is more than just a name and cool logo as well. You want to survive the many tiers of war coming for our industry over the next decade? Create a brand that the people love and support. More owners need to focus on deepening their brand and what exactly it is. My advice for discovering what your brand is: Define what it isn’t! For just one example, Cirrus is not a place where you will watch sports on TVs. In fact, there isn’t a single screen in the place. Most people creating lounges right now say they want it to be for “everyone”. Then surely you’ve determined how to make your space as inoffensive to any potential customer that may walk in, right? Well, some people don’t like rock music. If you’re playing that, then it’s not for everyone. Some people don’t like sports, if you are playing sports, it’s not for everyone. You want to have a space that converts to a different vibe everyday? Well that’s fine, but that’s a venue… not a brand. Making a brand for “everyone” doesn’t work. Define what your brand IS NOT to help structure what your brand IS. #branding #cannabis Oh and ps: Make sure to get your Founding Membership if you want one 😎 The perks are… dope.

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I could not have said this better - so I am reposting it! Download the 7shifts report and take just one thing from it and implement it well and see the power of engaging your teams and inviting them to the process!! Link to Report: https://lnkd.in/geZgE8hd #culturematters #restaurantsuccess #restaurantbusiness #employeeengagement #employeeretention

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Annual report on restaurants and consumers by Alix Parnters offers some amazing insights. Start with summary in NRN or read the full report, totally worth taking the extra time to get the details, click here. https://lnkd.in/g57uT-kd Despite some signs of stability and continuing optimism, many operators know painfully well that things aren’t necessarily rosy right now, and second quarter earnings reflected as much. The consulting firm outlines four strategies to manage changing consumer behaviors that have impacted sales and traffic: Evolving menu offerings Enhancing the consumer experience Investing in employees Implementing balanced pricing https://lnkd.in/gzJ7nhJk #restaurants #consumerspending #trends #offpremises #theopga

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#PSA One of the best decisions we made in the early days of Cheeky Cocktails was migrating our website from Squarespace to Shopify. Running an ecomm store is night and day better on Shopify, and if you want to sell DTC this is a non-negotiable, IMHO. But, on its own, Shopify's analytics tools are a bit clunky. We recently subscribed to RetentionX for in-depth insights and analysis on our customers, and it is wild how it translates your data into clean and clear actionable insights on where you should focus your energies, when you should engage and re-engage your customers, etc etc. If you have a DTC store I would highly recommend you check it out! (Also, I'm not affiliated with RetentionX in any way, just a happy customer:)) #dtc #ltv #retention #marketing #digitalmarketing #startup #cpg #customerjourney #cocktails #mixology #founders #spiritsbusiness #beveragebusiness #nonalch #brandbuilding #ecomm #ecommerce

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👇 Reminder to all my DTC marketers out there: Static ads are still crushing it. … And they are WAY easier to create and test. I've talked about this before And I'm going to keep talking about until it stops being true. (Bonus points: your creative team will also thank you for "easier" briefings 😜 ) Just because everybody is talking about UGC videos, never stop testing the fundamental image ads. It's also just good practice to have a healthy creative mix in your account. You don't want to become reliant on one ad type ❌ The more winners you can create, the better the performance. And the quicker you can scale 💶 Do you agree? LMK 👇 #FacebookAds #CreativeStrategy #MediaBuying

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👇 Reminder to all my DTC marketers out there: Static ads are still crushing it. … And they are WAY easier to create and test. I've talked about this before And I'm going to keep talking about until it stops being true (Bonus points: your creative team will also thank you for "easier" briefings 😜 ) Just because everybody is talking about UGC, whitelisting etc etc., never stop testing the fundamental image ads. It's also just good practice to have a healthy creative mix in your account. You don't want to become (over) reliant on one ad type ❌ The more winners you can create, the better the performance. And the quicker you can scale 💶 And something I've been playing with recently... Midjourney. Prompting skills need a little more work to take these ads to the next level, but it's fun playing with new techniques. Do you agree? LMK 👇 #FacebookAds #CreativeStrategy #MediaBuying

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